Stargate Evolution: Alternate Destinies
by Healthy Insanity
Summary: This is a rewrite. I had a similar story posted but I deleted it because it was crap. Hopefully this one will be better. Mutants in Space! In addition to exploring and getting in trouble, SG-1 also has to find these guys. No-beta. Be kind.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Juda stared at her ceiling, lying on her back under her Scooby-Doo covers, trying to be still and go to sleep.

Except her eyes wouldn't close - weren't even heavy, because she wasn't that sleepy - and she sighed as she turned onto her side, facing her Batman alarm clock.

11:56.

Juda stared at her alarm clock and then lifted her head to look at her door as it opened.

Tina stood in the doorway in her Disney princess nightshirt and boxers, television remote in hand, the same weary non-sleepiness in her eyes, and Juda sighed, throwing back the covers and slipping on her Dick Tracy bathrobe.

The two of them trudged down the stairs, past the dog and cat, and into the living room. Tina went and got the video tapes out of her little cabinet, and Juda went into the kitchen to grab her favorite midnight snack.

Cheerios.

"Make me some," Tina told her, as she poured a bowl, and she made a face, but pulled a second bowl down from the cupboard.

After fixing the cereal, she returned to the living room and settled down on the couch next to her sister, who took a bowl and started munching as the television lit up and began playing Ghostbusters, the Animated Series. The two of them gave vague smiles, eating as they half watched their favorite, faithfully recorded show. Tina looked over at Juda after a moment and sighed.

"He wasn't that great a boyfriend," she said, and Juda sighed too.

"He really wasn't," she agreed, and Tina relaxed a little.

"He was kind of dumb, too," she added. Juda shot her sister a look from the corner of her eye.

"He wasn't _that_ dumb," protested the teenage girl. Tina made a face.

"He said he thought I was you," Tina told her. "I mean, granted, we're twins, but come on, there are some fundamental differences here that can't be ignored. And even if he thought that the hair was a dye job and the eyes were contacts, there's still the fact that you're a mini detective - you want to be Batman when you grow up - and I'm a mini fashion designer - I want to _design_ Batman when I grow up," she explained, and Juda rolled her indigo tinted eyes but had to agree that yes, her boyfriend going after her twin sister and then defending himself by claiming to have believed that he had the right twin was nothing short of blindingly stupid.

"I just thought," she started, and then stopped, rolling her eyes again. "Forget it," she sighed, and Tina let her pink tinted irises roll loose in her sockets as well, annoyed at her sister's inability to communicate. Her boyfriend had been a jerk. An attractive jerk, but still a jerk. Tina was just glad he'd tried to get _her_ in the sack, so that she'd have incontrovertible evidence of his jerkitude.

The two of them went back to watching Ghostbusters, and then Juda sighed, setting her bowl of cheerios to one side.

"I thought he was the one," she said, and Tina arched an eyebrow at her.

"Really?"

"Yeah," Juda said, shrugging. "He was sweet. He remembered my birthday," she said, smiling shyly, and Tina sighed, setting her bowl aside too and hugging her sister. Juda shifted so that the two of them could cuddle together on the couch. "I thought he was a good guy," she said. Tina nodded.

"So did I," she confessed. They watched more Ghostbusters for a while, until Juda began to feel her vision fuzz at the edge.

"Think I'm getting sleepy finally," the pink haired teen told her purple haired twin. Tina nodded vaguely.

"Me too," she said, but neither of them yawned. They both started to fidget when it seemed that the temperature began to increase, and they separated, looking at each other, but blinking, because their vision was continuing to dim.

It was then that Juda realized that she wasn't tired at all, and that her heart was beating faster than normal.

"Tina?" she asked, and Tina hugged herself.

"I'm too warm," she replied, and Juda's eyes widened when she saw, faintly, a bright glow surround her sister, before she couldn't see anything at all, or hear anything, or feel anything except for the oppressive heat that enveloped her, making it hotter and hotter, but not actually painful, until she couldn't take it, and she passed out.


	2. In which origins are discussed

Chapter One

Juda Macabie stared at the massive wall she was sitting in front of and lifted a hand to wipe away the sweat that was dripping down her forehead, tucking a stray lock of her unruly, bubble-gum pink hair behind her ear before returning her attention to the tattered notebook in her lap. She had been copying from the wall for most of the day without really knowing why. She wasn't really listening the first time Daniel went off about the giant, gold room, so all she knew was that it was an important room, and she for one didn't want to have to schlep all the way from the settlement to the cartouche every time Daniel wanted to take a look at it. She'd already made a sketch of the room itself, including rough estimates of the dimensions of the room and the various, huge, statues within, just in case Daniel actually wanted to see the room itself. Now she was copying down the extensive system of symbols that covered its walls.

She stopped after a few more lines, dropping the improvised ball point pen into the notebook in her lap, and sat up from her hunched over position. Several bones in her spine popped audibly, relieving the tension that had been slowly building over the last half an hour of repetitious activity, and she let out a small groan of relief. Rolling her head on her shoulders and listening to more popping left her feeling marginally more relaxed than she had moments earlier.

She sighed, dragging her hand across the back of her neck, nose wrinkling disgustedly at the feel of sweat, then stood, stretching her arms out over her head as she yawned. Muscles in her arms and back stretched and loosened, and the abnormal teenager looked at the wall she'd been sitting in front of for the last unknown block of time and let her indigo-tinted eyes travel upwards towards the top of the list before turning to look at the rest of the walls that she still had to copy. With a muffled groan, she glanced at the flickering torch that she'd been working by and wished desperately that the Abydonians had invented the light bulb already.

"Time for a break," she muttered, scrubbing her cramped hands through her matted and grimy hair before grabbing her notebook and heading for the exit.

She'd been living on this planet for a little more than a year, and she still wasn't anywhere near being used to her surroundings. Every day she yearned for trees that had some sort of _green_ on them, and a nice steak and potatoes with a coke instead of fried chicken lizard and still swill. Despite all that, she had adapted to this life in order to survive.

Daniel had been almost essential to her integration into the Abydonian community that thrived here (somehow), being that he was the only person who fluently spoke both of their languages. She smirked at the memory of how he'd tried to teach it to her in the beginning as she gathered the things she'd brought with her to the cartouche. She, of course, was still stubbornly clinging to the belief that she wasn't going to be there for very long; someone was coming to get her. She refused to believe that there wasn't any way for her to get home, to the extent that she'd purposely sabotaged his attempts until he gave up. It had taken a month, because he was almost as stubborn as she was. Juda grabbed the burlap sack that served as her makeshift backpack and headed towards the exit of the elaborate temple.

As she neared the mouth of the tunnel that would lead to fresh, if hot and sandy air, she slowed at the sound of voices. Daniel's voice she recognized, but the others were speaking English with not a trace of an accent, and Juda tilted her head, wondering when the military had gotten there, and whether or not Daniel had already told them about her. Then she shook her head and went back to the wall she'd been working at, grabbing one of the torches and walking around the room, lighting the other torches so they'd be able to see properly.

"Uh, Captain-Doctor, you're going to love this," Daniel was saying as he and the group of uniformed soldiers came into the area. The one woman of the group took in the room with wide eyes and a slack jaw. Juda guessed that she was the designated geek, since the others didn't look nearly as awed as she did.

"Oh my god," she said, turning to take in the entirety of the large, open room with its golden wall carvings and thirty foot gold statues. "This is amazing," she gushed, shaking her head with awe. "This is the archaeological find of the century!" she added.

"That's what I said," Daniel told her, and Juda, from where she'd been fixing a torch that wouldn't go back in its sconce, made a face.

"It was not," she argued, drawing everyone's attention. Daniel blinked at her.

"Yes it was."

"Daniel, I was there. You babbled a lot about what you thought might be important about this place in regards to the Abydonians' cultural history, but you never said it was the archaeological find of the century. At best you said it was 'really something else'," she told him. He rolled his eyes, but didn't argue the point. The stranger whose rank read 'Colonel' glanced between them.

"Who're you?" he asked her, and Juda gave him a brief assessing glance as she contemplated the question before folding her arms.

"Well that depends. Who are _you_?" she asked in return. Daniel seemed to realize he'd dropped some sort of round, spherical object, and cleared his throat briefly.

"Jack O'Neill, this is Juda Macabie. Juda this is Colonel Jack O'Neill," he introduced them. Juda nodded her greeting to the Air Force Officer and then looked at Daniel.

"The guy from the first mission," she clarified, and he nodded. Juda glanced at the others and arched an eyebrow. "And they were..." she started, prompting him to fill in the blanks.

"Major Kowalski was there, Captain Carter was not," he explained, and Juda looked at Carter, who was trying not to feel like the odd girl out. The teenager nodded slowly as she digested the information.

"And unless you were invisible, neither were you," Jack said pointedly, and she blinked at him. "So how'd you get here?" he asked. She stared at him for a moment, but he was hard to read, so she looked at Daniel.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" she asked, and he blinked, eyebrows twitching upwards.

"Uh, sure," he replied, following her to the other side of the room, where she faced the wall mostly, arms folded. "What's up?" he asked.

"I hate to seem all paranoid, but your friends are all military," she told him. He blinked.

"Damn, I was hoping you wouldn't notice. What gave it away?" he asked, and she rolled her eyes, shifting her weight onto one leg and folding her arms.

"Don't be a smartass, Daniel, this is a legitimate concern here," she said, and he sighed, but nodded. "You told me that the first time you came to Abydos, it was through the Stargate, which – as far as you were made aware – was the only means of interstellar travel on Earth. Don't you think that when they find out I'm from Earth, just like them, they're gonna have some questions?" she asked him. He shook his head with a shrug.

"Of course," he answered. "Who _wouldn't_? I had questions. _You_ had questions. So they're going to have questions too, what's wrong with that?" he asked. She sighed, tilting her head.

"Daniel, half the people here still think I'm Ra's successor. Do you remember why?" she asked, staring at him as he thought about it, and watching the moment when something clicked in his memory, and he got it.

"Oh!" he said, and she nodded.

"Yeah, oh," she replied, rubbing her forehead. "What are we going to do?"

"Tell the truth," Daniel told her. She lifted her head and stared at him as though he'd suddenly turned radioactive purple.

"Daniel...It took me seven months to tell _you_ that I was a different kind of Earthling. You had questions; the military's going to have _tests_, and they're not going to be multiple _choice_, okay?" she said in a low voice. Daniel shook his head, a little annoyed.

"Not about _that_," he reassured her, and she sighed. "But we don't know for sure that your talent had anything to do with how you got here, so there's no reason not to tell them that you're from Earth," he added. She glanced at the others from where they were staring and sighed again, but nodded, and Daniel smiled. He gave her shoulder a fond and comforting squeeze, walking back over to the others with a hesitant Juda trailing behind him. Jack glanced between them.

"What was _that_ about," he asked, and Daniel shrugged casually.

"Nothing important," he replied, and Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Looked important to me," the military man parried, and Juda folded her arms, shifting her weight.

"It wasn't important to you, it was important to _me_, which is not the same thing, Big Brother," she told him with a slight narrowing of the eyes. There was a slightly incredulous scoff from Kowalski and Carter stifled a smile, but Jack just blinked stoically. "And to answer your earlier question, I have no idea how I got here," she added. The snickers died, and they all stared at her, sharing occasional, confused glances.

"None at _all?_" Kowalski asked. Juda shrugged.

"Nope. It's an interstellar case of there one second, gone the next. I voted for aliens on their day off. Daniel thinks unexplained phenom of the universe," she said, before looking at the archaeologist standing next to her. "Daniel thinks a lot of things," she added, and he rolled his eyes. "Speaking of things that you put way to much thought into; here," she said, rummaging in her bag and pulling out her notebook, which she handed to him. He accepted it readily, attention momentarily diverted as he took in the number of pages she had filled.

"Great," he said, smiling. "How much longer until you're done, do you think?" he asked. Juda arched an eyebrow.

"Well, let me ask you this; have you ever watched molasses slide down the side of the jar? In winter? Outside?" she asked him, and he snorted.

"Got it," he replied. Carter gave Juda an odd look, and Juda imagined that her accent and her comment about molasses were filtering into the scientist's brain.

"You're from Earth," she said, sounding surprised by her own conclusion. Juda shrugged.

"That's right," she answered casually.

Carter blinked at the bland response, but couldn't think of anything to say to that except for, "That's impossible." Juda's eyebrow arched again and she glanced at Daniel before tilting her head at the Air Force Astrophysicist.

"Actually, I think the words you're looking for are 'ridiculously improbable'," she corrected, to Carter's continued surprise. "Clearly it's not impossible, or I'd be at home right now, harassing my sister and trying to get out of mowing the lawn," she added, and Daniel sighed at her tone.

"Juda, be nice," he chided slightly, and she graced him with an incredulous expression.

"Oh, yes dad," she replied. His look was one of deepening disapproval.

"Cute kid, Daniel," Kowalski commented with an amused smile. Daniel's returning smile was tight and insincere, but there was a glimmer of amusement underneath.

"Yes," he told his friend. "It helps to curb my urge to kill," he added, getting a snort from both Juda and Jack. Kowalski shook his head, but Jack sighed.

"Jeez, Daniel, where'd you dig up this kid?" he asked. Juda gave a bark of laughter and pointed at the Colonel.

"Dig up? That's rich. An archaeology pun. You are a funny, funny man, Colonel," she said. Daniel turned his attention to her copy of the symbols and pretended not to hear while Jack and Juda regarded each other with scrutinizing eyes. Carter looked back and forth between them, not really sure _what_ to say, and Kowalski snorted.

"Where'd you find the mouth, Daniel?" he asked. Daniel didn't look up as he answered, flipping through the pages as he tried to find the point where she'd started copying that day.

"In the middle of nowhere," he replied, distractedly. After a moment of conspicuous silence, he glanced up at them, realized that perhaps a bit more explanation was expected, and cleared his throat. "I found her lying unconscious in the desert on one of my first trips out of the city, about three days after I sent you all back through—"

"_Whoa_, Danny!" Jack cut him off, and Daniel blinked. Juda just rolled her eyes.

"At ease, Captain America, I already know about the Stargate," she told him, and he blinked at her. "Hence my comment about 'the first mission'," she added at his blank stare. He considered this for a moment and then looked back at Daniel, who glanced at Juda and licked his lips.

"Yes, well...anyway, that was three days after I sent you back to Earth, but I figured – bizarre circumstances not withstanding – she didn't get here by 'gate," he finished. Carter shifted her weight, frowning a little.

"Well, how could she? Even if she made it past all the security, she'd still have to get into the control room, dial Abydos, and get into the 'gate-room – all without anyone noticing," said the scientist, with a doubtful tone. Juda could see that O'Neill and Kowalski didn't seem to buy that scenario either, but when she looked at Daniel, his expression was intensely speculative. She rolled her eyes, huffing in annoyance.

"I'm talented, Daniel, but I'm not _that_ talented, alright?" she asked, arching an eyebrow. He glanced at his friends but nodded his understanding.

"So the question remains: how did Ms. Macabie—"

"Whoa, dude," Juda interrupted, eyeing Kowalski with exasperation. "Ms. Macabie is my _mom_," she told him. "Just call me Juda," she instructed. He concealed his amused grin and nodded.

"How did Juda get here?"

The question was considered in silence and Juda glanced at each of them, but her attention caught on Captain Carter, and the expression on her pretty face. It sent Juda's gut into spasms of dread, because she knew that look. It was the look her best friend used to get right before she realized something huge and complicated. Juda waited warily for this epiphany to be put into words. Jack, noticing the apprehensive way she was looking at Carter, arched an eyebrow and turned to the pensive astrophysicist.

"Captain," he prompted after a moment, and she glanced at him while Juda took deep breaths and told herself that there was no way that Carter could know.

"Sorry, sir, I was just thinking," answered the distracted blonde. O'Neill blinked twice when he realized no further explanation for her foray into deep thought was forthcoming.

"Well, see that it doesn't happen again," he replied with a straight face. This elicited amused smirks from Daniel and Kowalski as Carter glanced between Jack and Juda, both of whom raised an eyebrow at her expectantly.

"Well, sir, I think I know how Juda got here...sort of," Carter told him. There were surprised stares as she organized her final thoughts on the subject. Juda was the first to speak.

"Care to share with the rest of the class?" she asked, drawing the scientist's undivided attention. "The suspense is driving me nuts," she added, and Carter blinked.

"You don't know?" she asked, and Juda sighed.

"No. How many times can I say it? I told you, I have no idea. No clue. Zip. Nada," she reiterated, rolling her eyes and adjusting her tone to a low and slightly menacing 'duh'. Carter considered this.

"I thought you meant that you didn't know how you ended up on this particular planet. It didn't occur to me that you might not know the means through which you left Earth," she confessed. Juda shrugged at her helpless to explain.

"Don't know what to tell you. One minute I'm munching on my midnight cheerios with T-Bone, watching Ghostbusters in my favorite pajamas and bitching about my skeezy boyfriend, and the next thing I know, I'm waking up naked in the desert, surrounded by a bunch of weirdoes who looked like they jumped out of the pages of National Geographic," the teenager said. Kowalski pulled a face of exasperation while O'Neill pulled one of curious confusion.

"Naked?" Kowalski scoffed.

"Who's T-Bone?" Jack asked. Juda glanced at them.

"None of your business, and I'm not wearing these to fit in, you know," she answered them, gesturing to her outfit. She was wearing a pair of worn and faded BDUs that she'd rescued when Daniel had been about to throw them away. They'd been patched in several places, sewn together in others, and the shirt was a home-made halter top with sleeves that buttoned down the sides. Juda looked at Carter, fiddling with one of those buttons. "What is it that you think happened?"

"Well, three days after the first team returned to Earth from Abydos, over two hundred people went missing," she started, and Juda arched an eyebrow at the estimation, but Daniel just shrugged.

"So?" he asked. At this, every other eyebrow in the room shot up, and Juda turned to gape at him, giving his arm an incredulous shove. He looked at her, realized his faux pas, and held up a hand. "Okay, no, I mean – obviously that's horrible, but – don't hundreds of people go missing every day?" he asked Carter, who nodded, though her smile was a smug one.

"None whose time of disappearance coincides with a barely diffused nuclear situation," she replied, and Juda blinked.

"Pardon?" she asked, a little alarmed.

"Defense satellites all around the planet recorded over two hundred of what they categorized as missiles being launched from all over the globe. The crisis only lasted a few moments – as long as it took to realized that the 'missiles' hadn't re-entered the atmosphere, but when it was over with, we found out we'd lost a couple of satellites. One of the ones that weren't destroyed managed to get a few pictures of the phenomena. Whatever it was, however it was achieved, they were heading out into deep space at a higher velocity than any missile on Earth could manage. After everyone was sure that no one was going to start a nuclear war, the whole thing was covered up. I only know about it because someone thought that something like this happening three days after the conclusion of the Stargate mission was too big of a coincidence," she finished, and Juda arched an eyebrow.

"Well, okay, cool story and all, but what makes you so sure that they were people?" she asked.

"There were several phone calls reporting missing persons, as well as strange occurrences dealing with streaks of light shooting up into space. One call was actually made _as it happened_, to 911. An Air Force Major was concerned when his daughter began complaining of dizziness and a temperature, and he described what was happening up until his phone melted," she said. Eyebrows went up in the room. "In the hospital later, he said that she fell to the floor, began to glow, and then shot up through the roof, leaving an almost perfectly circular hole," she concluded. Juda stared at her for a while and then turned away, heart pounding.

Is that what had happened? Had she turned into a streak of light? Had Tina? Had the Air Force Major's daughter been...as special as Juda and her twin? Behind her, Juda could hear the others asking Carter questions about whether or not the Major's case was investigated, but she didn't really register the conversation. She rubbed the back of her neck as her mind swam. Over two hundred human beings, talented or not – were wandering around in space without a clue as to how they'd gotten there.

"How is something like this even possible?" Kowalski asked, and Juda tuned back in, sighing.

"That's not really the issue here," Juda replied, still rubbing the back of her neck.

"And what's the issue?" Jack asked. Juda let her arm fall to her side, turning back to face them and folding her arms.

"The issue is that someone or some_thing_ catapulted more than two hundred Earthlings into space whether they wanted to go or not. They've probably been stumbling around the galaxy – probably alone, more than likely afraid – for over a year," she said, taking a deep breath and setting her shoulders as she lifted her chin. "And I'm going to find them."

This brought her the raised eyebrows of surprise and speculation.

"Really," Jack replied, challenging her authority. Carter merely looked perplexed.

"How?" she asked. Juda arched an eyebrow.

"Through the Stargate," replied the adamant teenager.

"Impossible," Jack scoffed.

"The Stargate only goes to Abydos and back," Kowalski added. Before he had even finished his sentence, Juda had taken the ratty notebook back from Daniel and was flipping through it.

"I think you're wrong about that," she said. Carter's eyes slid to Daniel, who smothered a smile at Juda's unknowing echo of his earlier words. "That's what this cartouche is for," she added, gesturing around. Carter turned to look, surprised and curious, but Jack and Kowalski gave it a cursory glance before looking back at Daniel and his assistant.

"What's it say?" asked Jack, and Juda snorted, shaking her head.

"Say? It doesn't say anything, Colonel, it isn't someone's epitaph," she scoffed. Daniel glanced at her before licking his lips.

"She's right. Actually, it's sort of a chart, more of a..." he made an off-hand gesture as he searched for the right word. "...a map," he said after a moment.

"Of?" Jack asked, and Daniel gave an exasperated chuckle while Juda continued to flip through pages.

"We haven't been able to analyze _all_ of it. I mean, look at it, it would take my whole life," Daniel told him, but Jack just folded his arms over the butt of his gun.

"Well, Daniel, we don't have that long. What's it a map of?" he asked again. Daniel sighed and grasped for words to explain it all as simply as possible for his friend. Juda was ignoring them all, glancing at walls and muttering to herself as she searched the notebook.

"Well, the cartouches seem to be separated clearly into groupings; each grouping is attached to the others with a series of lines and each grouping of glyphs contain seven symbols, so you can see where this is going, of course," posited the archaeologist. Jack stared at him blankly.

"Tell us anyway," he replied, indicating that – no, he really didn't know where Daniel was going with that. Juda made a soft noise of triumph and looked up.

"They're gate addresses," she announced, folding the notebook into some semblance of order and rejoining the conversation.

"A lot of gate addresses," Daniel agreed.

"A whole system, in fact," Juda added. "All these symbols, most of which I've recorded into this notebook, are on the Stargate, and the device in front of it. Look," she held out the notebook to Jack and Kowalski. They walked over, as did Carter, and Jack took the notebook. Juda pointed to a circled set of seven circled symbols. "That's the address for Earth. Daniel showed me how to dial it. It's on the cartouche, somewhere over there, I copied it down several days ago," she told them, gesturing vaguely to an area behind Carter. Jack looked at it and then handed the notebook back.

"And?" he asked, making her roll her eyes.

"And..." she started, exaggerating the word, "If it's on the wall, amidst other symbols of seven, that means there are other Stargates out there. I'm pretty sure they aren't there for decoration," she said. He shrugged.

"Unless all that extra stuff is to disguise Earth's address so no one could find it unless they dialed all the addresses or knew where to look," he replied, and she stared at him for a second before shaking her head.

"You watch too much television," she told him, and Kowalski quickly turned a snort into a cough. "They're 'gate addresses, Colonel," she insisted.

"I don't think that can be," Carter told her, and she sighed while Daniel looked confused.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because after Colonel O'Neill and his team came back, _my_ team tried _hundreds_ of permutations using Earth as the point of origin and it never worked," she reasoned. Juda opened her mouth to say something but was overridden by Daniel.

"I tried the same here and it didn't work either, but I figured the destinations I tried were either destroyed or buried, but, I mean," he gave an exasperated chuckle. "Some of them – somewhere – must still exist," he insisted. Carter shook her head, speaking up as Juda started to give her own opinion, holding up a finger to try and interject.

"I don't think so," Carter replied.

"Then where did your Ra look-alike come from?" Daniel asked.

"I have a theory about why no one could make it work!" Juda blurted this out in a rush at high volume, and everyone looked at her, blinking. She sighed, shaking her head at Daniel. "Let a girl get a word in edge-wise, Dr. D," she muttered, making the older man blush.

"What is it?" Carter asked, and Juda looked at them all.

"I have a theory about why no one could make the Stargate go anywhere but here or Earth," she repeated, slower this time. Carter looked surprised and interested, and she held her hands up before slowly pulling them apart. "Stellar drift," she said, before letting her arms fall to her sides. Carter blinked, stared, and then shook her head, smiling.

"I think I'm going to like you, Juda," she said, and Juda gave a theatrical bow.

"What?" Jack asked, and Carter looked at him.

"Sir, according to the expanding universe model, all bodies in the universe are constantly moving further apart," she explained, and Daniel's face lit up in comprehension.

"So in the thousands of years since the Stargate was built," he started, and Juda bounced on the balls of her feet.

"All the coordinates could have changed," she concluded, smiling smugly, but Daniel's face suddenly shifted into a confused frown.

"But then why does it still work between Abydos and Earth?" he asked. Juda raised an eyebrow.

"Got a theory about that too," she said, folding her arms.

"You've just got a theory about everything, don't you?" Jack asked, slightly annoyed. She stared at him with a completely straight face.

"I've had a lot of time to think," she told him.

"What was your theory?" Carter asked, and she tilted her head.

"It's easiest to grab that which is closest," she said simply, and Carter gave a chuckle.

"That's brilliant," she replied.

"I don't get it," Jack said. Sam looked back at him.

"According to Juda's theory, Abydos is probably the closest planet in the network to Earth. The closer the planets are, the less the difference in relative position due to expansion – the further away the greater the distance. In a few thousand years, it won't work between Earth and Abydos either."

"Unless you can adjust for the displacement," Daniel offered, and Captain Carter nodded.

"Right. Now, with this map as a base, that should be easy. All we have to do is correct for Doppler's Shift, and then I should be able to arrive at a computer model that can predict the adjustments necessary to get the gate working again," she finished.

"Okay," Kowalski said, and everyone looked at where he was wearing an expression that was part confusion part pain. "What did we just figure out?" he asked.

"The Stargate goes other places," Juda translated. Carter nodded, looking up and around at the chamber's torch lit walls.

"Those aliens could have come from anywhere," she said. Juda blinked.

"Aliens?"


	3. In which Juda is broody and bad ass

Stargate Evolution: Alternate Destinies  
Season One: Episode One  
Children of the Gods  
Chapter Two

"So...aliens as in not of the humanoid variety?" Juda asked as they walked back towards the pyramid that held the Stargate. Daniel sighed.

"This is why I never told you, you know," he told her, but she was ignoring him.

"So, basically, every theory I've ever had about space – the ones that you shot down as laughably juvenile –" she went on, and he rolled his eyes. O'Neill was ignoring them, but Kowalski and Carter were enjoying her wild, purposely annoying rant.

"Juda," Daniel whined, and she snorted.

"Oh, please, that's never worked on me. All my theory's are true, and you laughed at me. Punk," she snapped lightly, and he shook his head.

"Every theory you've ever had has not been correct," he countered, and she arched an eyebrow.

"You mean the theory about Ra being an alien, and not a god? You laughed at that, you know," she told him, pointing.

"You also theorized that the light was a substance you could hold in your hand if you shifted one dimension _to the left_," he shot back, and she tilted her head.

"Prove it's not," she countered.

"Prove it _is_," he replied, and she smirked.

"Can't. That's why it's called a theory," she told him. He sighed.

"This is why I never told you about aliens," he snapped. She shook her head, opening her mouth to say something, only to stop at the sudden sound of gunfire in the distance. Daniel froze too, but she barely noticed, because a second later she running, shoving past a startled O'Neill as Daniel called after her to stop. She couldn't hear him over the buzzing in her ears. Gunfire was bad, but what was worse was that Daniel had told her that Skaa'ra was at the 'gate, and so was Shau'ri.

People were rushing out as she reached the steps, and she grabbed the first one she came to.

"Kel Skaa'ra?" she demanded, and the frightened Abydonian pointed back into the pyramid. She dropped her bag and ran forward, flexing her fingers. She'd been messing around with one of the staffs that the Abydonians had recovered in the revolt, and she was pretty accurate with it, all things considered, but she wasn't sure how many shots she'd get off, and the little fighting style she'd been fiddling with wasn't going to be much if they knew anything about _any_ sort of _real _martial arts.

They were going back through the Stargate when she rushed into the room, and one of them turned, hearing her approach. He was carrying Skaa'ra. She gritted her teeth hard as she spread her hands apart as the soldier who'd seen her sent up the alarm. Other alien soldiers in their shiny grey armor turned to look as well. _That's right, boys, look at the hands_, she thought, and brought them together as fast and as hard as she could.

There were shouts of surprise at the burst of light that blinded them all, but Juda paid that no attention, and while they were blinking away the blur, she darted forward and kicked one of the soldiers in the back of the knee. With a cry, he fell to his knees, momentarily loosening his grip on the staff weapon, which she snatched away from him before whacking him in the back of his helmet.

There was another burst of light, which she used to dodge a few panicked bursts of staff energy. Her blasts weren't as random, and resulted in two of the soldiers falling down with part of their armor melted into their chests. She only got off a couple of shots before one of the bigger ones surprised her, knocking the weapon out of her hand before hitting her in the chest hard enough to send her flying back over the dialing device. She hit the ground with a yelp that became a drawn out groan of pain. She couldn't see for a moment, and then she realized that she couldn't see because her eyes were squeezed shut, so she opened them in time to watch the last of the soldiers walk through the gate. Adrenaline surged, and she pushed past the pain, stumbling a little as her back spasmed, but she made it to the small 'gate dialer, staring at the lit symbols and muttering under her breath.

She watched them until the gate shut down and they stopped glowing, and then took a few breaths, gingerly stretching her muscles and wincing when they shouted their disapproval into her nerves. She had to walk it off. She had to get the gate open, because she had to go after Skaa'ra.

"Juda!" Daniel shouted, running into the room, but he was instantly distracted by the mess that the hostiles had left behind, so she ignored him, working at her bruises until it was a dull burning instead of a sharp stabbing pain. Daniel and Jack and the others who she'd been talking to in the cartouche were fanned out, checking the wounded and the dead. Juda was still standing at the dialing device, most of her weight supported by it. Her shoulders ached, and her chest was sore where the guy had hit her, but she continued to take as deep a breath as she could, and she was still mostly intact. It was like that guy went out of his way not to damage her too badly, which was a thought that passed through her mind so quickly she barely registered it.

After a few more moments, she stood up on her own feet and stretched as much as she could without bending over backwards and started dialing. Almost immediately, O'Neill was there, and he grabbed her arm, stopping her from pushing the next symbol.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"I'm going after them," she replied, and tried to pull her arm out of his grasp, but her shoulder sent a bolt of pain down her spine to tell her that it was not okay with that. She hissed, but just gritted her teeth against it and dialed the next symbol with her other hand.

"You can't do that," he told her, pulling her away from the device. She stumbled a little, and he caught her, but she pushed him off.

"Don't tell me what I can't do," she snapped.

"Look, some of these people are still alive. We have to get them back to Earth and get them treatment, or they're going to die," he shot back. She stared at him for a while before looking past him to Carter, who was looking over a soldier that Juda hadn't met. "You can't do this alone. Let us help you," Jack went on, and she stared at him.

"Sir, Farretti needs medical attention, now!" Carter yelled, as the man she was next to murmured weakly about how there were too many.

"Go, I can send you back," Daniel said, crossing the room to look at a few of the other Abydonians, and Juda looked at him.

"I'm going with them," she said, bringing Daniel up short, and Jack nodded, looking at his friend.

"You both are, Daniel, I've got orders," he said. Daniel's sneer was ugly, and a little hysterical.

"I don't give a damn about your orders, Jack. My wife is out there, and so is Skaa'ra," he snapped, but Jack just grabbed his arm to stop him from walking away.

"That's right, and the only way we're gonna get them back is if you come home with us. Juda saw the coordinates, we can figure out how to get there from Earth," he insisted, before turning to Carter. "You get everything you need, Captain?" he asked, and she held up her little video recorder.

"Between this and Juda's notebook, we're set," she said. Jack nodded and looked at the injured teenager.

"Go grab your bag, you dropped it outside," he said, and she nodded, walking slowly back to the entrance.

She was seething on the inside with an anger that was only compounded by every twinge and ache she felt. Skaa'ra was one of the only people who hadn't automatically treated her as though she were some three headed insect, and now he was gone, taken by those freaks in the suits. She grabbed her bag and made sure that everything was in it before heading back into the temple, where Daniel was being hugged and bidden farewell by the young men that had survived. They ignored her, but then they always had unless Skaa'ra or Shau'ri was there. She went back to stand next to Jack at the 'gate, punching in the symbols for Earth.

"Hey," Jack said, as she reached for the center button that would activate the Stargate. "We're going to find him," he told her, and she stared at him for a moment before turning back to the 'gate.

"You try to keep me from going on the rescue mission, and I will fuck your shit up," she told him calmly. He blinked, arching an eyebrow, but said nothing as she pressed the center button, barely flinching as the water illusion splashed out at her before settling into the flat, shimmering puddle that allowed for safe 'gate travel.

"Alright, let's go," O'Neill ordered his surviving team before looking at Juda, who was already picking up the discarded staff weapons and moving over to Farretti. She carried the weapons over one shoulder and grabbed one handle of the litter with her other hand, getting a nod of thanks from Carter as they started to drag it forward towards the vortex that Jack and Daniel had already gone through. There was a millionth of a second where she could almost feel what it was like to be disintegrated, and then she was being reassembled, and she was cold, so cold, a sensation that caught her off guard, making her stumble. Jack caught her before she could hit the grate, taking the staff weapons so that she could finish pulling Farretti through the gate.

Someone yelled something over an intercom when the others had come through from Abydos, and Juda whirled around, shocked as several curved slats of metal slid into view over the large circular opening of the Stargate. Juda grabbed one of the staff weapons back from Jack, but he put a hand on her shoulder before she could take a threatening posture.

"What the hell is that?" he asked the world in general.

"That's our insurance against any more surprises. It's pure titanium, hopefully impenetrable," answered a voice behind them, and Juda swiveled about again, glancing at Jack as he switched his hand to her other shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. The man (The stars said General, the tag read Hammond) gave the young, pink haired girl an assessing glance before looking beyond them to the medics who were helping Carter and Kowalski get Farretti onto a stretcher. "What happened, Colonel?" he asked.

"Base camp was hit while we were on recon, sir," O'Neill reported. Hammond looked surprised.

"The same hostiles that attacked us?" he questioned, though from what Juda could see on his face, he had already correctly guessed the answer.

"That's a fair guess," Jack answered anyway. Juda sighed.

"Wasting time," she muttered, and Jack glanced at her, turning back to the General, whose attention was now on the young woman.

"And who's this?" he asked.

"Juda Macabie. Earth. No, I don't know how I got from here to Abydos, and I've been there for a year," she told him, answering each predictable question before he could get it out. "I'd love to sit and chat and submit for a physical, but the more time we spend blabbing, the longer Skaa'ra and Shau'ri are in enemy hands, and they don't just know about me, they know about you," she snapped. He looked alarmed.

"And how do they know that?" he demanded. She arched an eyebrow.

"Uh...cause we're from Earth? I was stuck there for a year and I knew nothing about them, what was I supposed to talk about: the weather?" she replied.

"Juda," Jack started.

"I won't play nice, Colonel, I need to get back out there and find Skaa'ra," she growled at him.

"Well you're going to have to wait anyway, we need to patch up our wounded and we need to have a plan," he told her. Her grip on the weapon tightened, an action that was not lost on the General, who shifted his gaze to the fourteen armed men who were standing off to one side.

"How long?" she demanded.

"That's not up to him, young lady," Hammond said. "You're going to have to surrender that...weapon," he told her. She arched an eyebrow, but Jack's hand gave her shoulder a squeeze and she worked her jaw for a moment, but handed the staff weapon to the Air Force Colonel with only a warning glare. Right about then, Daniel walked up to the General.

"General, hi. Daniel Jackson. I'd like to be on the team that goes after my wife," he said, talking quickly, as if it could get the ball rolling any faster. Hammond looked at Daniel and seemed to puff up in anger, his already motionless upper lip tightening into a little line.

"You're not in any position to make demands, Jackson," he snapped, before turning and walking up the ramp towards the injured soldiers. Juda walked over to Daniel, leaning into his side automatically when he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, his expression worried, but still determined.

* * *

The next few hours were filled with medical and bureaucratic bullshit that Juda was only half paying attention to until one of the nurses tried to give her a shot. Several blinding flashes of light later, Daniel managed to calm her down long enough for her to be restrained, and she remained so until they could transport her to a holding room. She yelled and screamed at them from inside the room, although it was unclear as to whether or not they understood her. For the most part, she just sat on the small cot that was available and tried not to imagine that they were arranging for her to be transported to Area 51 or anyplace else where they had the equipment to dissect her into small pieces.

It was about four hours later that Daniel walked in to the room where they'd been keeping the pink haired teenager. He waved. She waved back.

"How's it going?" she asked, although her casual demeanor was a front and they both knew it. Daniel smiled reassuringly.

"Congratulations, you're not a terrorist or a threat to national security," he replied, and she rolled her eyes in frustrated annoyance.

"Gee, what a relief," she muttered, picking at her pants. Daniel shrugged.

"Yeah, well, it means they're not going to shoot you at dawn, so," he quipped, and she snorted as he sat down.

"Do they still do that?"

"Dunno," he answered. "They're a little confused. They can't believe they'd never heard of anything like you before, aside from—"

"Aside from comic books," she finished, and he shrugged again. "So what happens now?" she asked, and he knew from her posture that she was expecting something horrible to happen.

"Now you sign a big long document that they don't really let you read which basically says they can try you for treason if you so much as breathe the word Stargate outside this mountain, and then you'll be sent home with some cover story that they're inventing as we speak," he told her. She sighed, somewhat relieved, and leaned back against the wall, looking up at the ceiling. She was quiet for a long moment and then she shook her head.

"No," she finally said, and Daniel looked surprised again. "I can't go home, Daniel," she told him.

"Why not?" he asked. She sighed again.

"Because my mother wouldn't be able to deal. Because Tina isn't with me. Because there isn't a cover story the government can concoct that my mom would buy if it _didn't_ include at least one reference to aliens. All of that, but most of all because my mother would talk," she told him. He considered this in silence. "I love my mother; I would rather she didn't have to become the victim of a cover-up that would destroy her reputation and her credibility," she added. "So I can't go home."

"I'm sorry," he said after a moment, and she shrugged.

"I suppose I'm mostly okay with it," she replied. "Considering that I'm gonna stay here," she added. Daniel blinked at her.

"Juda..." he started.

"Two hundred people, Daniel," she interrupted him, and he stopped. "Two hundred Earthlings and one of them is my sister, you do the math," she said. He rubbed the back of his neck, grimacing as he considered the conversation that he was going to be having with Jack and Hammond later. "I'll sign the Nondisclosure agreement, but only if they let me stay," she told him with finality. There was another, long moment of silence as Daniel tried to think of some way to convince her, but then he sighed and nodded.

"Then I guess I'd better go talk to General Hammond," he replied. She looked at him, nodding gratefully. "In the meantime, their letting you out, so long as you're accompanied by two soldiers," he added, indicating the two stern-faced men in uniform who were guarding the door. She stared at them for a moment, getting up and walking over to the door in order to get a closer look at them, but after another heavy sigh, she just nodded.

The first place she went was the cafeteria, because she hadn't eaten all day, and one of the soldiers graciously used his lunch card to get her a meal that she tore through ravenously, all the while bemoaning the year that she'd gone without such delicacies as the hot dog or, to the guard's unexpressed amusement, Jello. After that she was presented with her Nondisclosure agreement, which she sat down and read, highlighting the areas that she didn't understand or agree with before signing it anyway and sending it back with the airman. She was on her way back to her room when she saw Daniel and Jack. Daniel looked lost and depressed, and Jack looked like that bothered him.

"Hey," she said, walking over. They both looked up, and she stuck her hands in her pockets. "What's up?"

Jack looked at her for a long moment before glancing back at Daniel, who was wiping his face in one hand, and then shook his head as he sighed.

"Come on, we're getting out of here," he said, and Juda arched an eyebrow, looking back the way she'd come. The airmen who were assigned to follow her were catching up. Jack waved them off and then jerked his head down the corridor. "Come on," he beckoned.

* * *

Juda was not in a great mood when they returned to the mountain the previous morning. She had crawled into the bed that Jack had provided anticipating the best sleep she'd had in a year, only to find that she couldn't get comfortable. Earth was too warm at night, compared to Abydos, and without Skaa'ra to hold her in his arms and share his body heat with her, she just couldn't fall asleep. Those few times she did, she relived his abduction, with varying endings that all left her with ice in her stomach and a bigger hole in her heart than she started with.

She, Jack, and Daniel were all silent in the car, and it wasn't until they were in the elevator on the way down into the mountain that Juda spoke.

"So, when exactly is this meeting?" asked the sixteen year old. Jack rolled his eyes at her question before glancing at Daniel, who winced and looked apologetic. Apparently he wasn't supposed to tell her that there was a meeting, but that made no difference at all, because Juda would have assumed there to be a meeting anyway. Rescue missions didn't just happen.

"You're not invited, Juda. It's a classified meeting."

"Daniel's going," she argued, and Jack glared this time. Daniel just sighed and looked up at the ceiling of the confined space.

"The meeting has something to do with Daniel. He just spent a year on the planet that was attacked," he countered, but Juda folded her arms and shifted her weight.

"So did I," she replied, arching an eyebrow. "I'm going to that meeting, Colonel," she told him before he could say anything, and he rolled his eyes at her resolute glare, but sighed, shaking his head. If he didn't get her in, she'd just barge in anyway, he could tell. He might as well go and try to ask the General for permission before she did.

"Fine," he replied, shaking his head again.


	4. In which Juda joins the briefing

Stargate Evolution: Alternate Destinies  
Season One: Episode One  
Children of the Gods  
Chapter Three

"Ladies and gentlemen, General Hammond," Samuels introduced, as the two of them entered the room. Hammond's sharp and scrutinizing eyes glanced around the table and came to rest on Juda, who sat with fingers laced on the table, dressed for the occasion in an SGC rank-less uniform. She gazed back at him with quiet but unrelenting determination, and he glanced at Colonel O'Neill, who winced slightly as he tilted his head. The man in charge gave a small, barely audible sigh of resignation and nodded at Juda before speaking.

"People, what is spoken of in this room has been classified as SCI top secret. Colonel, what do we know about these hostiles that we didn't yesterday?" Hammond asked. O'Neill cleared his throat.

"Not a hell of a lot, General. The Abydonian boys who survived the attack on the base camp thought it was Ra." he reported, causing a consternated look to cross the General's face.

"I thought he was dead, gentlemen. Which is it?"

"Oh, he's definitely dead. I mean, uh...the bomb," Daniel made a gesture of explosion with his hands and Juda grinned affectionately at his antics, shaking her head. "He's got to be dead, right?"

"Then who's coming through the Stargate?" asked the General. There was quiet for a second, as a ponderous expression pulled Daniel's eyebrows down into a deep 'v'. Something he'd learned during his stay on Abydos was picking at his mind.

"Gods..." he said, mostly to himself, but Juda glanced at him. She knew about Ra from what the Abydonians had told her and from what Daniel had told her, and she could see what he was thinking because it had also occurred to her.

"Excuse me?" Hammond asked with more than a sense of incredulity and impatience. Daniel looked up at him and glanced around the table before going into what Juda referred to as a 'full-on Daniel rant'.

"Not as in 'God' god. Ra played a god, the sun god. He borrowed the religion and culture of the ancient Egyptians he brought through the gate and he used it to enslave the people," he explained, and Juda nodded, speaking up as she looked at the General.

"From what Daniel's told me about the previous Stargate mission and from my own personal conversations with the people, none of the Abydonians knew that there was such a concept as other Gods before we started asking questions about it. Ra made it so that they believed he was the only one, but who's to say he was?" she asked, eliciting the expression of realization on other faces in the room, as well as the expression of 'oh, great, now what?'

"You mean Ra's not the last of his race after all?" Carter asked. Juda looked at Daniel, uncertainty written in her eyes. She didn't know.

"Maybe he's got a brother 'Ray'," Kowalski joked sourly, and O'Neill let out a snort.

"That's just what we need," he muttered, to a smattering of nervous laughs. Daniel licked his lips and forged ahead.

"The legend goes that Ra's _race_ was dying. He survived by taking over the body of his human host – an Egyptian boy – but who's to say that more of his kind couldn't do the same? I mean, this could be happening any time anywhere there's a Gate. This could be happening right now," Daniel finished. Juda felt a spike of anxiety at the thought of two hundred of her people being forced to live in servitude to these alien oppressors. Hammond looked at her as she shifted nervously in her seat, and then watched as Daniel turned his head to look at her, one hand covering hers on the table. She shook her head visibly pulling herself together, and he nodded, turning back to the proceedings as General Hammond turned to Colonel O'Neill.

"Colonel, you've had the most experience fighting this hostile. Assuming you have to defend yourself in the field, are you up to it?" he asked. Jack thought for a moment.

"We beat 'em once," was the only thing he could say with confidence.

"I'll take that as a maybe," the General answered with a nod, turning to Carter next. The blond sat up a little straighter as his attention fell on her. "Captain Carter, you're confident that the Stargate will take us where we want to go with this new information?" he asked. Carter nodded.

"Well, they're feeding the revised coordinates into the targeting computer right now. It'll take time to calculate, but it should spit out two or three destinations a month." she answered strongly, completely sure of her computers. Hammond sighed, shaking his head at the table for a moment before looking back at his people.

"People, let's not fool ourselves here, this thing is both vast and dangerous and we are so in over our heads we can barely see daylight. We would all be much better off if the Stargate had been left in the ground." he started, and Juda froze.

"How can you say that?" she asked, horrified. Everyone looked at her, surprised at her outburst, but she ignored them all, staring at General Hammond. "You freed a people from slavery, and even if that weren't important, which it most certainly is, if you hadn't, I'd still be on that planet. Stranded, like the hundreds of others who are out there, most likely against their will."

"Calm down, Ms. Macabie, I am not suggesting that we close the Stargate forever, just suggesting that perhaps we rushed into things without knowing what we were doing," replied the General, and she took a deep breath, calming herself and leaning back in her chair.

"With respect sir," Carter said, a ponderous expression on her face. "Juda's right. We can't bury our heads in the sand. I mean, think of how much we can learn. Think of what we could bring back," she suggested. Hammond shook his head.

"What you could bring back is precisely what I'm afraid of, Captain. However, the President of the United States happens to agree with you. In the event that your theories pan out he has ordered the formation of nine teams, whose duties it will be to perform reconnaissance, determine threats, and if possible to make peaceful contact with the peoples of these worlds." he announced. Everyone looked around at each other, and Juda glanced at Daniel, who was unenthusiastic. "Now, these teams will operate on a covert top secret basis. No one will know of their existence except the president and the Joint Chiefs." he added. Juda nodded, having expected as much. "Colonel O'Neill?"

"Sir?"

"Your team will be designated SG-1. The team will consist of yourself, Captain Carter—" he started, and Daniel spoke up without looking away from the tabletop.

"And me?" he asked. General Hammond sighed.

"Doctor Jackson, we need you to work as a consultant with the other SG teams from here. Your expertise in ancient cultures and languages are far too valuable—"

"No," Daniel said, interrupting the General, who looked astounded. Daniel looked up at him and licked his lips nervously. "Um, look, I...I mean I know this is your decision, but I just...I...really have to be on their team." he insisted. Juda watched Daniel and the General, watching the flicker of understanding pass over the General's face. "My wife is out there, General. I need to go," he said quietly. Hammond sighed, but didn't dismiss the man outright.

"I'll take that under consideration," he said, but Juda could tell the exact moment he had decided that he was going to say yes. "Major Kowalski, you will head SG-2."

"I will?" asked the man, confused, and pleasantly surprised.

"Colonel O'Neill keeps telling me it's about time you had a command," the General explained, at which Kowalski looked at Jack, who shrugged slightly.

"I had a moment of weakness," he said, brushing off his endorsement of the Major's abilities to lead. Juda looked around and raised her hand slightly. The General saw and sighed, leaning against the table.

"I suppose you'd like to join a team yourself," he asked, and she rested her hand on the table, leaning forward a little in her seat.

"No, sir, General," she answered. Daniel's head swiveled around to look at her, but she just continued. "I realize that putting a teenager with no official military training on a gate team this early in the program would be considered a serious lapse in judgment, and I would never put you in that position." she told him. He blinked at her eloquence. So did almost everyone else. Daniel was still wondering what she was up to.

"Thank you," he said, waiting for the other shoe to drop. She sat up, leaning against the table.

"That having been said, I request to join SG-1 on a temporary basis. Until we find Skaa'ra." she said, and General Hammond shook his head.

"I can't authorize that," he told her, and she nodded.

"I think you can," she replied, looking at him calmly as she folded her hands on the table in front of her. General Hammond folded his hands as well, reminding himself that she wasn't in the military and that he could not, in fact, bust her rank. "You know what I can do, but aside from that – aside from being uniquely capable of creating a flash of light bright enough to blind my opponents long enough for me to run away or hide – I am familiar with twenty-six types of firearms, several types of explosive devices, and three types of basic, hand-to-hand self-defense," she added. He stared. So did everyone else. Jack leaned forward to give her a calculating look from around Daniel. She shrugged. "Like I said, no _official_ military training, but I and some people that I trust made sure to familiarize ourselves as much as we could with whatever the military would be likely to throw at us if they ever found out about us and determined that we were public enemy number one. In a pinch, though, my weapon of choice is a good old fashioned rock. My fastball has been clocked at eighty-three miles an hour," she added, looking more than a little smug about it. Daniel rolled his eyes at her brag, but Jack just smirked. Juda looked back at the General, who was considering her request.

He didn't like the idea of sending a teenager – even one who was as prepared as she said she was – into unknown, possibly hostile territory. He also didn't want to stand here and argue the point with said teenager. He was a General, not a school teacher. He didn't debate orders, he gave them.

"I'll think about it," he said, and she quelled her immediate disappointment. Somehow she would find a way to get his approval. There was no way she would leave her people out there without a good fight. Before she could formulate her next argument, however, the door to the room opened and an Airman stepped through with a sheet of paper, which he handed to Major Samuels.

"Ferretti's conscious, sir," he announced, and Jack nearly leapt out of his chair, not even waiting for the General's 'dismissed' before he was down the hall and on the way to the infirmary. Everyone else was close behind. When Juda got there, she stood in the doorway and watched as this man whom she had never met confirmed the coordinates to the 'gate that Juda had told them Skaa'ra had disappeared to. When Jack walked past her, she only hesitated a moment before following him.

"Jack," she called, and he slowed slightly, turning to look at her. She caught up to him and matched his stride. "I need a favor," she started, but he cut her off.

"Look, I realize you and Skaa'ra are a a thing, but _I_ don't want you on this mission. We have no idea what we'll find, and Daniel will just torture himself some more if we don't find Shau'ri or Skaa'ra and then you get hurt," he told her, and she nodded.

"Uh-huh, yeah, sure, whatever, except that I want – no, I _need_ – to go for the same reasons that Daniel _needs_ to go," she insisted and he sighed.

"Juda—" he started.

"Skaa'ra and I were going to ask for Kasuf's blessing," she blurted before releasing a sigh of anxious trepidation. Jack stopped walking, eyes wide and eyebrows raised as he turned and stared at Juda. She did her best not to blush. Now was not the time for it. She had to get on the team to find Skaa'ra. "Yeah. Tomorrow, actually," she added, and Jack rolled his eyes before rubbing his face. "I have to find him, Jack," she insisted, looking up at him. When he didn't say anything for a long moment, she planted her fists on her hips and shifted her weight as she gave another sigh, this one huffy and annoyed. "What, you want me to beg?" she demanded, and he held up his hands.

"Alright, alright!" He rolled his eyes as she folded her arms. "If – and I stress if...If the General says yes, you'll be my responsibility. That means you do what I say, when I say, and no quibbling about semantics or interpretations, understood?" he asked, and she nodded fervently.

"Understood, Colonel. Whatever it takes to be on the mission to find Skaa'ra," she told him, and he sighed, nodding.

"Go wait with Daniel while I talk to Hammond," he told her, and she snapped off a salute before going to find her friend. Jack shook his head and stifled a groan. What on Earth had he done to deserve this?

Roughly half an hour later, Jack, Daniel, Sam, and Juda were walking down a hallway towards the Embarkation room, geared up and ready for off-world travel. Samuels was walking with them, holding a sort of remote.

"Colonel, I'd like to remind you that rescuing Doctor Jackson's wife and brother-in-law is a secondary objective. In the event you fail to notify base camp within Twenty-four hours, SG-2 will scrub the mission and return without you." Samuels lectured.

"Understood," Jack replied, but Kowalski snorted.

"Not gonna happen, Colonel. SG-2 won't leave without you," he argued, bringing a smile to Jack's face. Samuels looked annoyed, but didn't say anything about it.

"Alright, let's confirm transmitter codes. Remember, only the right code will open the iris, and if you lose your transmitter, you cannot get home." he reminded them.

"Understood, sir," Carter answered, taking the remote from the Major. Juda rolled her neck back onto her shoulders, shifted her weight from foot to foot, and generally fidgeted, drawing Daniel's attention. He nudged her, and she looked at him, smiling back weakly when he tried to give her a reassuring look.

They all looked up as the Stargate activated, and Juda stared at the splash-drop that erupted from the confines of the circle. It was kind of unsettling, the thought of being taken apart at the cellular level and transmitted as a data stream before being reassembled on the other side of an imaginary phenomenon. You couldn't actually see a wormhole in space, even if you flew right through it in a spaceship. And the whole thing being the same principle as the transporters on Star Trek just added to her paranoia; a paranoia that hadn't been there the day before, but then she'd been really pissed off at the time. She swallowed hard and looked at Samuels as he started talking again.

"SG-1, SG-2, if you do not return in 24 hours, your remote transmitter codes will be locked out and the iris will be sealed permanently. At that point, there will be no return. Is that understood?" he asked. Idly, Juda wondered if the military's own sense of deeply instilled paranoia was SOP.

"Yes, sir," O'Neill replied, saluting before he turned to his troops. "Let's move out," he ordered, and they all moved up the ramp, including Juda, who nodded in response to Jack's 'you behave' expression, walking with Daniel.

Juda hesitated at the threshold of the wormhole before sighing, looking back at Jack, who raised an eyebrow as he and Kowalski approached.

"What a time to be having second thoughts, kid," Kowalski muttered, and she shook her head.

"No, no, I'm good," she said, nodding. She closed her eyes. "Skaa'ra," she said, quietly, before opening her eyes and clenching her teeth, anxiety taking second place to determination as she took that last step forward.

To say that the landing was rough would be an understatement on par with saying that Hitler was a big meanie. They didn't exit the wormhole so much as they were ejected from it, and Juda, her equilibrium thrown completely out of whack, did the first thing that occurred to her, and curled up into as tight a ball as she could manage. She hit the steps back first and bounced, thrown out of her protective curl to land on her front, rolling to a stop at Daniel's feet where he was sitting against the dialing device.

"Ow," she told him flatly, and he winced in agreement. She pushed herself up shakily, helped up after a moment by Jack, who looked rather pained himself.

"You alright?" he asked, as he held her arm. She nodded, leaning against the small, squat device, and feeling her back.

"Does the military cover chiropractors?" she asked him.

"Presumably." he answered. She tilted her head, groaning when the bones shifted together and popped.

"Good, 'cause I'm gonna need a tune up." she told him. He smirked, and then looked around at everyone.

"Alright everyone, let's get unpacked and set up." he ordered, and there was a discordant chorus of 'yes, sir!" as the soldiers hurried to comply. Juda looked up at the Colonel.

"And what are my orders, Colonel, my Colonel?" she asked, her voice cracking as she straightened and felt several vertebrae pop back into place. He glanced between her and the others before nodding at Daniel.

"You stay here and keep him out of trouble," he said. She looked over at Daniel, who was rolling his eyes and nodded.

"Yes, sir," she replied, making a face when Daniel suddenly sneezed.


	5. The mission to Chulak

Stargate Evolution: Alternate Destinies

Season One: Episode One

Children of the Goods

Chapter Four

"How are you dealing with this?" asked Daniel quietly as they pored over the dialing device. Juda looked at him for a short moment and then went back to checking their surroundings for potential threats, including the military men whom she still didn't trust.

"Poorly. You?"

"Same," he replied distractedly. She gave a wry smirk, turning her head to look at Jack as he approached. Daniel glanced at him too before launching into his anthropologist spiel.

"Uh, it must be some kind of ceremonial place. The 'gate is - has to be part of their spiritual culture. See this place was built for worshippers," he explained, though Jack looked indifferent.

"Yeah, well let's just try to be out of here before the worshipees turn up, huh? You figure out yet how to align the gate to get back home?" the soldier asked, looking at Juda who was still scanning the horizon.

"Yeah. The device is the same as on Abydos. This symbol represents—" started Daniel, but Jack just cut him off.

"You brief Kowalski's team yet?" he asked.

"Yes," Daniel answered before starting again with his 'I found something cool' tone. "This symbol represents..."

"Good job," O'Neill said before walking away and Juda turned to look at Daniel who seemed annoyed by the Air Force Colonel's blunt lack of interest. Normally she would have smirked at him, amused by O'Neill's more direct approach to Daniel's excited anthro-babble, but all she could think about was how they all were wasting time standing around when they should be taking one of their teams to look for Skaa'ra. Daniel looked over at her, saw how stiff she was and stilled for a moment, calming out of his annoyance.

"Hey," he said, and she looked at him. "We're going to find them," he told her, and she blinked.

"I know," she told him. Her tone held such finality and Daniel briefly wondered what she'd do if O'Neill ordered them all to head back through the gate without even so much as a clue to Skaa'ra's whereabouts. He couldn't imagine anything good, but then O'Neill was telling them to pack it up and they were walking in silence with the soldiers and airmen. He wanted to talk to her about it, but the presence of the soldiers made him reconsider, and the emptiness of the non-conversation hung between them, turning his thoughts towards his wife.

They walked with the group for about an hour, Juda and Daniel both uncharacteristically silent as they contemplated finding their loved ones while the others, the soldiers, chattered like chipmunks to keep their minds occupied.

At last Jack pulled their little caravan to a halt and looked around, satisfied with the location. Juda looked at him, and he rolled his eyes at her expression of attentiveness before turning to Kowalski.

"Alright, this looks like a good spot right here. You guys set up." he ordered the other soldiers, who started unpacking the tents and radio equipment. "We'll head out. If we're not back in twenty hours—"

"We'll come rescue your sorry asses," interrupted Kowalski, and Jack gave a brief smirk before getting back down to business.

"Negative. You'll go back through the 'gate with the combination Daniel gave you before the iris is locked so you _can't_ go back." he ordered, giving the other soldier an 'I appreciate it, but follow my orders' look. Kowalski nodded.

"Yes sir," he replied, saluting. Jack saluted back, but it looked as if he were disgusted by the gesture in general.

"Hold down the fort," he said, as he turned and gestured for everyone to start walking. Kowalski grinned again.

"Pick me up a t-shirt!" he called after them.

Once they were a little ways away from where the soldiers were setting up camp, Juda looked around.

"So, what are we gonna talk about?" she asked, and Jack rolled his eyes. Carter though, looked at Daniel, who wasn't paying attention at all.

"So, Daniel," she started, and he looked at her, eyebrows raised. "Tell me more about Shau'ri. How did you meet?" asked the astrophysicist. Daniel flushed.

"Shau'ri, well, she, uh…" he fumbled, his face turning a little pink. Jack smirked, not looking at them as he finished Daniel's sentence.

"She was a gift."

"She was, actually, from the elders of Abydos, the first time we were there," Daniel confessed, throwing a glare at Jack that went unnoticed. Sam stared at him incredulously.

"And you accepted?" she demanded. Daniel looked nervous, but Juda came to his rescue.

"It was her idea," confessed the pink haired civilian, and all three of them turned to stare at her. Well, Jack glanced and then went back to watching where he was going, but both Daniel and Sam looked shocked. "Oh yeah. She told me later she thought that Ra had decided to be benevolent, and had sent her an angel."

"Really?" Daniel asked, and Juda nodded, opening her mouth to say more.

"Hold up," O'Neill told them, and they all froze, Juda forcing her hands to relax almost completely while still holding her gun.

"What?" Daniel asked, nervously looking around. Jack motioned for them all to take cover, and they did, crouching behind some bushes. Juda positioned herself between Jack and Daniel, but slightly back from them, so that if she did decide to blind anyone, they wouldn't catch the worst of it. Ahead of them, coming up a trail, was a group of what looked like monks of some sort, all of them with bizarre markings on their foreheads, and carrying staffs that looked like the ones from Abydos, only these didn't appear to have the part that mattered most in a fight (Daniel had shown her the firing mechanism on one of them back on Abydos and she'd figured out the rest).

"Alright, Captain, take up position fifty yards—" started Jack, but Juda was distracted by sudden movement by Daniel, and she grabbed for him as he stood up and moved out of the brush, but missed, and ended up sprawled on the path. She slapped the dirt, but got to her feet and hurried after him, ignoring the uttered oath from the Colonel. If she couldn't stop him, she might as well go make sure he didn't get himself killed. She stopped behind him when he approached the monks, watching them warily.

"Hi," Daniel greeted, and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes, because that would mean taking her eyes off of what she was for now considering the enemy, and she didn't do that unless it was unavoidable. Jack and Sam approached from behind her, and she relaxed a little bit. Jack was an experienced soldier, and Sam was a very clever person.

Of course, Daniel was smart too, and look how often he got into trouble.

"Uh, we came through the Stargate," Daniel told the monks, who looked blank. Daniel frowned, the furrow between his eyebrows deepening. "Uh, the uh…uh Chapaa'ai?" he tried, and the monks' eyes widened.

"Chapaa'ai," they cried, and immediately started prostrating themselves on the ground. Daniel looked pained. Juda looked impressed.

"Oh, please don't do that," he muttered. She raised a pink eyebrow.

"This happen often?" she asked. He glanced at her, and then at the others, because they all had their guns out, and ready to shoot.

"Unless we want to give ourselves a bad reputation I just think we should avoid shooting the first people we meet on a new planet," he said, and Juda shrugged.

"As a rule, no, but we should also prevent others from trying to kill us by being prepared, and vigilant." she replied. She looked at Jack for support. He just raised his eyebrows.

"We?" he asked. She rolled her eyes and turned back to the monks as Daniel urged them to their feet. The one who seemed to be in charge gave him a curious look.

"Chula a lazla?" he asked, and Daniel blinked, confused at first before furrowing his eyebrows and searching his mind for a translation.

"Lazla…? Choose…They want to know if we're here to choose," he told the others. Jack waved a hand and Daniel turned back to confirm, but Juda looked at Jack, distinctly uncomfortable.

"Choose what, exactly?" she asked, but then they were being ushered off down the hill, in the direction of 'Chulak'. Whatever or wherever that was.

They were mostly quiet as they walked, Jack in front, Sam behind, and Daniel and Juda in the middle. Juda caught up to Daniel, leaning into his side and speaking quietly.

"I have what may be a stupid question, but I feel compelled to ask, Doctor Jackson PhD.," she started, and he nodded, smiling a bit at her use of his full title.

"What's that?"

"Why are these guys treating us like this? It's not the way you typically treat strange intruders, unless 'Chulak' is ancient hoosy-whatsit for 'jail cell' or 'executioner's block'," she said. Daniel listened to this and nodded, thinking.

"It's possible that they think we're some sort of Gods," he told her, and she made a face. His expression turned from thoughtful to confused, and he gave her a look. "What?" he asked. She shook her head.

"No offense, Doc, but that's not exactly comforting," she told him. He blinked.

"You'd rather we be thrown in their version of jail?" he argued, but she just raised an eyebrow.

"Almost," she answered. He looked surprised. "Look, I may have slouched my way through middle school, but I read a lot. Not cause I was a big reader or anything, just that there was nothing better to do. I'm not smart, but even I know that in some cultures, the worshipers end up eating their gods."

Daniel watched her through all of this, and blinked occasionally as he considered her statement before looking at the priests.

"Well, they don't seem like cannibals, but if it'll make you feel better, you can stick close to me for a while. I'll protect you," he told her. She snorted, knowing that if it came to a fight between her and Daniel, she could totally take him. He might be bigger, but she could blind him from as far as twenty-five feet, and she knew how to scrap.

"You're so full of shit, Daniel," she muttered, and he smiled. "You think we should tell the others about this?" she asked. He shook his head.

"Nah. Anyway, I think Jack will just think you're paranoid," he answered. She raised an eyebrow.

"How do you think I made it to puberty?" she replied dryly. He didn't answer.

In short order they found themselves in a Romanesque courtyard with a long table surrounded by pillows and lounging people. Juda saw only a handful of guards who paid them no mind at all as they sat at the head of the table and discussed the situation and how it pertained to finding Shau'ri and Skaa'ra. When the gong rang and the others around the table began to prostrate themselves, Juda almost groaned. _Seriously, what's with all the groveling, _she thought as she crouched, but kept her eyes on the door that everyone was facing.

She froze when she saw Shau'ri being escorted into the room by some guy in a skirt, her bearing as regal as any queen Juda had ever heard about or seen in a movie. She felt her blood cool at the bored way that Shau'ri was standing beside the skirted man, who addressed them all and ordered them to bow before their queen. Beside her, Daniel started to move, but she didn't realize what was happening until he was already on his feet and across the room. She started to chase him, but Jack grabbed her by the uniform and stopped her.

"Shau'ri," Daniel said as he drew nearer, stopping only when the guy with the skirt stepped between them.

"Kneel before your Queen!" he demanded, but his voice was distorted, and Juda tensed slightly. She popped the knuckles of her fingers before shaking them loose, ignoring the glance from Jack. Daniel looked at the man who was between him and his wife and then past him to Shau'ri.

"Shau'ri, it's me," he told her, but she regarded him dispassionately, which was just so wrong. He took a step, but then the man with the funky voice raised his hand, which was covered in gold, like a really ornate bracelet had gotten out of control. Daniel flew across the room and hit the wall. Juda ran to Daniel's side to make sure that he was okay while Jack stood up and pointed his weapon. When she didn't hear shots she lifted her head and saw that Shau'ri was now standing in front of Apophis (of course, she was only guessing that it was him, and there wasn't really any definitive way to tell).

A dull thump drew her attention and she saw Jack slump to the ground, guards with serpent helmets standing over him and Carter, who took her hands slowly off her weapon.

"Sam?" she asked, pressing her hands to Daniel's throat and thanking the powers that his pulse was still there. Just unconscious.

"Stand down, Juda," Carter told her as the serpent guards surrounded the young woman and her unconscious friend. The pink-haired teenager shot a confused look at Shau'ri, who watched impassively, as if Juda and Daniel meant nothing to her.

"What did they _do_ to you?" she demanded.


	6. In which Juda reunites with Skaa'ra

Chapter Five

Juda was sitting against a fallen stone pillar with her arms propped sullenly on her bent knees, plotting the untimely and gruesome demise of certain, glowy eyed persons when Daniel regained consciousness with a gasp and sudden upright positioning.

"Shau'ri!" he gasped, and she put a hand on his arm.

"Whoa, easy, Daniel," she told him, and he looked at her, but she didn't think he really saw her just yet, he was still too tangled in thoughts that hadn't caught up to the present. "You've been out for hours," she told him, and he blinked.

"No, I saw her," he insisted.

"We all did," Carter replied from where she was sitting just a few feet away. Juda shot her a glance and then stood and steadied her friend and mentor when he scrambled to his feet and swayed alarmingly to one side.

"It was Shau'ri, she was..." he started, before looking around. Juda sighed as his brain processed their location as well as the number of fellow occupants and then nodded when he turned confused eyes her way. Out of the crowd of prisoners, O'Neill emerged, returning from his trip around the room to scout for possible points of egress.

"Well, if there's a way out of here, I haven't found it," he told them, and Juda rolled her eyes, dragging her fingers through her hair as she shook her head. "But look at what I did find," the Colonel added, and she arched an eyebrow as she dutifully gave him her attention, only to gasp and then launch herself forward into the happily surprised arms of Skaa'ra. He held her close to him as she muttered her relief at his good condition, and then pulled her back to look at her, his arms on her shoulders.

"Juda, what are you doing here?" he asked her, and she arched an eyebrow.

"I came to rescue you, duh," she replied. He rolled his eyes and muttered something in Abydonian before shaking his head and pulling her closer. She smiled before an unhappy memory surfaced, and she drew back enough to look him in the eye. "Skaa'ra," she started, wondering how to go on, but he shook his head.

"O'Neill told me about Shau'ri," he told her, and she sighed.

"I'm so sorry," she replied, wishing there were something else she could say. Daniel shook his head, angry and in denial.

"No. Jack, help me. We can find her again. We can—" he started, but Jack just looked at him.

"Daniel," he started, raising his voice, and the archeologist deflated a little. "Don't. If we can't find our way out of here, the mission's a bust anyway. They seal the gate in just over ninety minutes. C'mon, kids, let's go find a way out of here," he said to Skaa'ra and Juda. Skaa'ra nodded, but Juda was looking past him, and when he turned, it was to find that a serpent guard had come up on them without their notice, and he grabbed O'Neill by the wrist, twisting it slightly to pull it closer for inspection.

"What is this?" a deep voice demanded from within the metal cowl. Juda slipped out of Skaa'ra's arms and stepped forward, hands loose at her side as she assessed the guard.

"It's a watch," Jack ground out through gritted teeth. The helmet opened to reveal the face of a dark skinned man bearing what appeared to be a golden tattoo. Juda took another step, only stopping when the man looked at her, his grip tightening on his staff weapon. Her eyes narrowed.

"This is not Goa'uld technology," the man said, and Juda betrayed nothing even as her mind raced. What the hell was a Goa'uld? "Where are you from?" he demanded.

"Earth," answered Jack, wincing. "Chicago if you want to be specific—"

"Your words mean nothing to me," snapped the man. Juda tensed.

"Drop him," she ordered, but he ignored her.

"Where are you from?" he asked again, his voice even more dangerous than hers.

"Uh, excuse me," said Daniel from behind Juda. Skaara, Sam, and the man in the suit of armor looked at him. Juda didn't, but she was trained on the new guy, and Jack, well he was a bit preoccupied with having his arm twisted uncomfortably. Daniel knelt down and drew the symbol of origin for Earth in the dirt. Juda glanced at it, less than half a second before refocusing her attention on Tin Man. "This is where we're from."

The man in armor looked at the symbol for a long moment before erasing it with the end of his staff and walking away, leaving Jack with an aching wrist and Juda very unsettled. Facts and questions were racing through her mind, starting with the reason he had chosen to question them and no one else, and why he had reacted that way to the point of origin symbol. If he knew about the raid on Earth, then he already knew what that symbol meant, so why wasn't he off to report this to his superiors? She supposed he could be, but if he was why would he erase the symbol first? It was like Earth was some big secret or something. Jack said something and she glanced at him before realizing that he was still talking about looking for an escape route.

"If we had one of those staff weapons, it'd be no problem," Juda said, and Jack blinked.

"Yes, but we don't," he replied. She said nothing for a moment and then walked off, following the path taken by the serpent guard.

"Hey," she said when she caught up with him and he turned, holding his staff weapon threateningly with both hands. Two other serpent guards approached, standing menacingly on either side of the one she wanted to speak to. She held up her hands to show their emptiness and glanced at the lead guard (who was eyeing her hands as though they weren't as empty as they seemed) before looking at his bodyguards. "Nothin' to see here, boys," she told them calmly. "Just havin' a chat with your boss," she added, looking back at the grim faced serpent guard with the golden tattoo.

One of the guards said something that she didn't understand, and her eyebrow jumped a little in mild confusion.

"Yeah," she said with a slight, incredulous smirk. "Whatever that is, I don't speak it," she told them. They stepped forward, but were stopped by the man with the gold tattoo, who glanced at them. They didn't look happy, but they retreated to the portcullis, and the serpent guard turned to her, his expression neutral.

"Speak, slave," he ordered. She blinked at the title and lowered her hands, shoving them casually into her pockets.

"Why do you care where we're from?" she asked. His neutral expression flickered to surprise and something else before he looked around them, moving only his eyes to make sure that no one else would hear them speak.

"That is none of your concern," he told her carefully, and she stared at him for a while.

"The hell it isn't," she replied in a low voice. "Whatever we're here for, you don't need all of us, and whatever happens to the ones who aren't 'chosen' will be unpleasant, to say the least," she said. She didn't bother asking him to confirm this. He looked slightly troubled, but held her gaze.

"What do you know?" he demanded.

"The priests or whatever that we met on their way to the Stargate asked us if we were here to choose. I don't think it was to choose a portion of the amassed slaves, I think you're looking for specific persons. Y'see, I was _there_ when you came to Abydos and stole my beloved. If you were just looking for slaves, you'd have taken everyone in sight and then some," she told him. His eyes flashed with recognition and then shut down. She got a bad feeling. "Why are we here?"

"You are here to serve your God," he said firmly, but the look on his face told her that he would rather be doing some other job – any job would do.

"Yeah, well then there's been a mistake, see I'm an atheist – I don't believe in Gods," she told him, just loud enough to be heard by the other serpent guards. The one she was talking to took the out she'd presented him with and swung his staff weapon. The butt of it hit her face, knocking her to the ground, opening the skin of her cheek and filling her head with stinging nettles, but through all this, she knew with absolute certainty that he could have swung harder if he'd wanted to.

He said something that she didn't really hear over the bells ringing in her ears and then she was being helped away by strong gentle hands, and she blinked her eyes back into focus.

"Oh, ow," she muttered, rotating her jaw. Not broken, just sore.

"Muy tonta, chica," said a voice beside her, and she looked to see a boy about her age with dark hair, dark eyes and a tanned complexion. The words he spoke stuck in her head for longer than was normally necessary for her to make a connection.

"Spanish?" she asked, putting a hand to her head and regretting it. He made a noise of surprise.

"Earth?" he asked in return. She nodded carefully and he let out a soft explosion of Spanish before looking around. "Anyone else with you?" he asked, and she pointed indistinctly.

"Check the uniform, I've got back-up," she told him. "God, ow," she hissed. Her new friend looked around and apparently spotted the others, because he slid his arm around her back more securely and moved her arm over his shoulders.

"Can you walk?" he asked. She closed the eye on the injured side of her face and the world swam back into focus.

"Should probably work on standing first," she told him. He smirked.

"Oh my god, Juda!" Daniel exclaimed, when the teenager was half carried back to the group.

"It feels worse than it looks," she said, wincing when Daniel touched her cheek.

"What did you do?" asked the archeologist, and she gave a shrug.

"Went and had a chat with our armored buddy," she said indistinctly, trying not to move the right side of her face. Daniel cursed. The boy who helped her glanced at him and Carter and then at Juda. Carter made sure Juda was alright before looking at him.

"Who are you?" she asked, and he stood up a little straighter.

"My name is Skipper Estevan Crane-Juarez, but you can just call me Skipper," he told her, watching her blink as she realized that he was from Earth as well.

"Captain Carter. Sam," she introduced herself. He nodded, glancing around.

"I don't suppose it's possible you're here on purpose?" he asked, and she gave a tight smile while Juda's chuckle turned into a groan of pain. Carter looked around at everything and sighed.

"Looks like Ra isn't dead after all," she said. Skipper blinked.

"Come again?" he asked, but Daniel shook his head distractedly as he tended to Juda's cheek with whatever they had in their packs (which wasn't much).

"It wasn't Ra. It was Apophis," he corrected her, and Juda – who was a big fan of mythology – gave a grunt.

"Well, the snake costumes make sense now," she told him, and he 'hmmed' in agreement as he dabbed at her sliced cheek with some gauze. Carter, however, had obviously never taken an interest in Egyptian mythos, and looked confused.

"Who?"

"It's from Egyptian mythology. Ra was the sun god who ruled the day, Apophis was the serpent god, Ra's rival, who ruled the night. It's right out of 'The Book of the Dead'." He frowned thoughtfully. "They're living it."

About that time Skaa'ra and Jack came back to the group. Skaa'ra's reaction to Juda's bleeding cheek was predictable and sweet, and she held his hand while Daniel and Sam fixed her up. Skipper and Jack gave somewhat awkward introductions above her, which were cut short at the sound of the portcullis being raised.


	7. In which choices are made

Stargate Evolution: Alternate Destinies  
Season One, Episode One  
Children of the Gods  
Chapter Six

Everyone in the room moved to the walls when the portcullis opened, creating a small stage in the middle for the serpent guard that Juda had spoken to as he walked in, sans a helmet and with his arms spread wide. Juda stayed close to Daniel and Skaa'ra – to protect one and draw comfort from the other – ignoring as much as she could the pain that was throbbing in her cheek. Skipper – one of the people that she'd been so determined to find after discovering that two hundred Earthlings had been flung into the reaches of space – had scurried away from their group and was on the other side of the room, shushing a very frightened looking young woman.

"Shaka ha! Kree hol mel, Goa'uld!" he cried, and everyone shrank away from him, as if by doing so they could push attention away from themselves. Juda shivered.

"What'd he say?" Jack asked, and Skaa'ra looked sick.

"They are going to choose," he answered, and everyone looked at him except for Juda, who was busy trying to make eye contact with the lead guard. He seemed to be deliberately avoiding her eyes. She felt like her stomach was sinking into her shoes. This was not a good omen.

"Choose what?" asked Carter.

"Who will be the Children of the Gods."

Juda glanced at her betrothed and then turned with the others to watch as a royal looking box was brought into the chamber. The curtains were pushed aside to make way for Apophis, the man they had seen with Sha're before they'd all been imprisoned. Juda looked at Daniel, whose face had gone numb, and then looked back to watch Sha're – the woman who had taught her how to cook, who had cared for her when she was sick, and had done her best to teach Juda the ways of an Abydonian woman – as she stepped out of the box to stand beside this stranger as if she belonged there.

"Benna, ya wan ya daru! Kneel before your masters!" ordered the head of the serpent guard, moving down the path created by the absence of people. He stood next to the group of Earthlings and at last met Juda's eyes as other guards moved through the crowd and forced others to kneel. They held each others' gaze for a long moment, and with a sinking heart she took Skaa'ra's hand, kneeling slowly and facing forward. Skaa'ra resisted at first, but she just squeezed his hand.

"There's no way we can take all of them before they kill one of us," she told him quietly. He scowled, kneeling close to her.

"Better a free death than a life as a slave," he told her, and she scoffed lightly.

"Yes, I agree. I also think we should exhaust all possible avenues of _living_ before we go to the 'free death' plan," she replied, arching a pink eyebrow at him. He glanced around at the guards.

"What do we do?" he asked her quietly, and her eyes darted around the room, looking for the advantage.

"I'm working on it," she told him.

"Benna, ya wan ya daru! Choose!" bellowed the serpent guard beside their group, and Juda shot him a glance, hoping he hadn't heard their little sotto voce conversation. Small groups of people – not guards – began moving through the crowd, choosing people seemingly at random. It struck Juda all at once that they were taking these people away to do what they had done to Shau'ri. Fervently she hoped that she wouldn't be noticed, but really how was that possible with her bubblegum pink hair and her violet colored eyes?

She was distracted from her thoughts when Daniel lunged forward against the guards and grabbed one of the passing Goa'uld. She grabbed him by the back of his jacket, pulling him back.

"Daniel, no!" she hissed.

"This one is passionate," the Goa'uld said, with apparent interest. Juda tensed, raising her eyes to the two of them and glancing around to see just how many guards were around. If necessary, she would kill these people before letting them take Daniel, who just licked his lips.

"How much would I remember if you chose me?" he asked, and her head jerked back to her friend and mentor. Was he _insane?_

"_Daniel!_"

"Daniel, what are you doing?" Jack demanded, starting to move forward only to have one of the guards tap him on the shoulder with his staff weapon; a warning.

"Something of the host must survive," Daniel insisted, sounding on the verge of tears. Juda closed her eyes. _Damn it, Daniel..._

The Goa'uld looked smug and thoughtful for a moment.

"We choose," he started, and Juda relaxed her hands, ready to spring into action. In her head she was already calculating the best way to protect Daniel and do as much damage as possible before forcing the guards to kill her – she would not allow herself to be taken alive. "Her."

Juda felt as though someone had tasered her. It was a moment of surprise on both her and Skaa'ra's part that allowed hands to grab her, and she frantically tried to clap, to snap her fingers, to do _something_, but her arms were separated, and it was very hard to snap her fingers when her hands were behind her back. Instead she screamed and struggled, digging her feet into the ground until they had to lift her bodily over their heads. She snarled and fought, all the while screaming that they didn't have the right, that she was a human being and that they couldn't treat people like this. Behind her she could hear shouting. She called for Skaa'ra, for Daniel, for Jack, and she begged Shau'ri – who was _right fucking there_ – to tell these idiots to let her go.

They toted her through long golden hallways and she continued to struggle, even managing to shake one of her assailants off, but another sprang forward and grabbed her arm in a bruising grip, lifting her up before Apophis, who raised his hand, wearing a shiny looking jewel on his palm.

"No!" she yelled, lifting her legs up and mule-kicking him in the chest. She, the guards holding her, and their 'god' went sprawling, and Juda scrambled to get away, slamming her hands together as hard as she could as soon as she could and giving a satisfied grunt when she heard their cries of pain and surprise. She crab-crawled away as fast as she could before stumbling to her feet, turning and—

—Oh.

Shau'ri – who knew all about her ability – had shielded her eyes and was not blinded by Juda's power. She stood before the teenager, her hand already raised with its own amber jewel resting securely in her palm. Juda tensed, raising her arms, but then the amber light of the jewel was in her eyes and she let out a harsh breath of air, arms falling limp at her side. Shau'ri led her to an altar, where she fell to her knees on the stone floor, the pain dull and in the back of her mind.

There was a large jar on the altar and someone opened it, reaching in and pulling out a large, serpentine creature. Juda stared at it but did not see, barely reacting as they brought it towards her and obediently bowing her head as one of them directed her to do so, the slimy caress of the creature drawing a sigh from the docile teenager. A piercing sensation at the back of her neck brought back memories of every slasher film she'd ever seen and she snapped out of it, finding her voice and screaming with all her might, but by then it was too late.

* * *

Bethany Rischel watched the whole, sick ceremony from where she was crouched in the corner, waiting for her chance to take them all by surprise. Her power was building as the seconds ticked by, but if she moved now, she would only have enough to push her way through the door, if that. So she watched it all. She watched as humans from all over the galaxy were looked over as though they were cattle, her attention drawn to the sudden commotion created by one human grabbing a Goa'uld's arm.

"How much would I remember if you chose me?" he asked, and Bethany's breath caught. His words were unremarkable, but his clothes were military and the weapons – He was from Earth, or at least he appeared to be. She watched as he was restrained by his companions, which included a pink-haired young girl. She seemed shocked when she was chosen. She screamed and kicked and yelled the foulest insults that Bethany had ever heard. If she had doubts before, they were laid to rest by the sailor's language that was coming from the girl.

The next one to be chosen was a young boy from the other side of the room, and Bethany was again amazed to hear yelling in a stream of hostile Spanish. Her power continued to build, slowing as it reached its plateau.

She dug deeper, rising to her feet as the order came to kill the leftover captives and everyone began freaking out, running around desperately and looking for a way out. Bethany felt annoyed that they were looking around _now_ when they should have been looking around the whole time.

"I can _save_ these people!" yelled one of them, and Bethany glanced that way to see an older man in a green uniform. "Help me!"

One of the Earthlings.

She glanced at the Jaffa that he'd directed his rather audacious claim towards and felt her concentration waver slightly.

The First Prime. Of all the people that he could have picked to try and recruit to the light side of the Force, he _had_ to pick the right hand of God, relatively speaking.

"Many have said that," said the large, bald man. Bethany continued to dig down for more power, turning away so she wouldn't have to watch someone from her own planet die. She gaped in surprise when the First Prime suddenly turned, shooting down one of his own men. He turned back to the Earthling. "But you are the first I believed could do it!" the First Prime added, tossing the other man his staff weapon. Bethany blinked, but a smirk crossed her face.

Well, well.

Taking a deep breath, she marshaled her powers, closing her eyes. She could feel the metal calling her, felt it in her mind and reached for it, opening here eyes again and focusing on the opposing guards. The Earthling and the First Prime jumped back in shock when the six other Jaffa suddenly flew backwards into the very sturdy stone wall hard enough to dent their armor before falling to the ground. They didn't get up. Bethany took a deep breath and let it out slowly, walking forward.

The Earthling saw her first, and he blinked.

"Was that you?" he asked, pointing, and she snorted.

"From all the way back there? That was like some sort of freak accident," she replied. He didn't even blink.

"Well how 'bout you 'freak accident' the door, they've got two Earthlings," he suggested. She arched an eyebrow at his lack of surprise, but assessed the door.

"We should go. Reinforcements will arrive soon," said the First Prime. Bethany sighed.

"Alright, you get them out. _I'll _go get the other two," she said, turning to the portcullis that the Goa'uld had lowered to keep them from escaping.

"How do you intend—?" started the Jaffa, before the portcullis warped outwards, making a hole big enough for her to step through. She looked at them as she stood on the other side, gate warping back into its original shape.

"Good luck," said the slightly awed Earthling.

"You too," replied the metal-manipulating Super, taking off down the hall.

She didn't have to guess at very many of the turns.

She just followed the sound of screams.


End file.
